Viola Davis, on Finding Creative Space in TV With No Limitations

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Viola Davis as Annalise Keating in ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder,” a role that led to an Emmy nomination for outstanding actress in a drama series.CreditMitchell Haaseth/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., via Associated Press

Viola Davis is a two-time Tony winner and Oscar nominee and yet she had to go to television to find a role that would put her out front in Hollywood. “I was always the Academy Award nominee who was only in two or three scenes and was grossly underused in a film,” she says. “I was tired of that. I didn’t want to do television, but in film I was just a supporting character. The fear of the television schedule ultimately did not outweigh my love for the role.”

That role is Annalise Keating, the tough-talking criminal law professor and protagonist of ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder,” which earned Ms. Davis her first Emmy nomination, for outstanding lead actress in a drama.

These are edited excerpts from a conversation in which she spoke about working with the producer Shonda Rhimes and her Shondaland production company, that Emmy nomination and the DC Comics film “Suicide Squad.”

Q. How has it been working on “Suicide Squad”?

A. This is my first big superhero movie. I signed on for three, so it needed to be a great experience. This was a role that was just there to be fun. It was a chance to work with Will Smith, you know?

Q. How are you feeling about the Emmys? Your category is a tough one.

A. It really is. I think I feel about the Emmys the same that I feel about any awards — they definitely make me very nervous. And even as I’m speaking to you, I can’t really explain why they make me so nervous. Maybe the scrutiny of your work. The comparisons to other actresses’ work, it all makes me nervous. Everyone deserves the award. We’ll see who gets it, and I’ll be happy. And then I have to go to work the next day.

Q. What do you think about the kind of roles Shonda gives women the opportunity to play?

A. She doesn’t put any limitations on the narrative based on your skin tone, your sex or your age. She doesn’t put any limitations on it at all. And neither does Pete Nowalk, who created “How to Get Away With Murder.” Where else would you see a show where Marcia Gay Harden is my sister-in-law, or me as a dark-skinned 50-year-old black woman with a sex life that’s messy? As much as people have critiqued Shondaland, they miss the fact that it’s progressive. That no one else is doing it.

Q. In addition to “Suicide Squad,” what else are you working on?

A. They are making “Fences,” August Wilson’s play, into a feature that Denzel Washington is directing and I’m going to be in. My husband and I started a production company, and we are doing Harriet Tubman’s story for HBO that Kirk Ellis is writing. And Tony Kushner is writing a project that we got greenlit at Fox Searchlight about the great congresswoman out of Texas, Barbara Jordan. I’m always moving.

Q. Are you drawn to the writing first?

A. I’m always drawn to the writing because it starts there first. That is why people can read scripts online and know a year in advance who is going to be nominated for an Oscar based on what’s on the page. Because if it’s not on the page, how can you play it?

Q. What was the impetus for starting your production company?

A. I knew that that was the only way I could get the material that really could make me shine. I had to be in control of it. I couldn’t just sit and wait for Hollywood to bring it to me. And this was after “The Help,” after I was nominated in the best actress Oscar category. Even on top of me starting my production company, the success of “Murder,” the Oscars, I still have a hard time getting movies done. It’s still always a fight.

Q. And it’s just Hollywood’s backward way of thinking?

A. Moviemaking today is just a different beast. A lot of female-driven movies, especially starring women who are older, or women of color, have a hard time getting financed and distributed overseas. I don’t know why. They are movies that I want to see. I know that there are people out there who want to see them. But I think there may be a certain fear factor involved in all of it. I knew, despite all of that, that I needed to do everything I could to be in a position of power to take at least some semblance of control of my career.

Q. So starting your company let you be in control?

A. Yes, but it’s a lot of work to be the boss. You’ve got to have two trains going at the same time. You have to stay relevant, hence “How to Get Away With Murder,” hence “Suicide Squad. “You have to stay relevant, because if you are not, no one will take a chance with you on even a $2 million budget. But then at the same time you have to take risks in terms of material that moves you.

Q. Do you feel you are in the position to mentor young actors experiencing the same roadblocks?

A. Absolutely, I do it all the time, constantly. But I find with mentoring, you have to know when to give advice and when to just be quiet and listen. It is a business that no matter how much you tell someone how it goes, no one really wants to listen to that. Their dreams are much bigger than whatever fear or whatever obstacle you say may be in their path.

The only thing that’s different with young actors now, and maybe it was the same then and it’s just my memory, is I feel like there is more of a sense of entitlement now. There is more of a sense of people wanting it all but not wanting to work for it. I’m experiencing success after 27 years professionally in the business and 36 years of acting in general. It takes a long time of standing in line to get to the front, and no one wants to stay in line anymore. No one wants to trudge through the dirt and the muck to get at something quite sweet. So if you are coming out and want to be a star — you want your “Sophie’s Choice” or your “Devil Wears Prada” or your “Precious” right away, you want your Oscar straight out of the gate — you are going to have a hard time.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: In TV, Finding a Creative Space With No Limitations . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe